Texas Home Building Markets Healthy, Index Shows

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Hanley Wood) – Texas housing markets are among the healthiest for home building, according to Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

The firm’s Builder Market Health Index gives many Texas MSAs a market health indicator well above 50 out of 100 (50 being the minimum to be considered healthy).

Austin-Round Rock had a score of 86.5, second only to Raleigh-Cary, NC, which had 86.9.

Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown scored a 77.3, San Antonio a 75.6, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington a 70.7 and El Paso a 65.8. Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission each scored 54.5.

According to Hanley Wood, the index weighs housing conditions in the 100 largest home building markets based on the 2011 outlook for six key variables most associated with strong home sales. Those include unemployement rate, change in unemployment numbers, home price appreciation, household growth, job growth and median income growth.